iRiver to make waves with new phone

Get ready Apple, for a competitor you won't care about

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Guess what? iRiver, the slightly kooky PMP maker over in Korea, has made a touchscreen mobile phone that combines the functionality of its media devices. So cue a slew of articles decrying it as the next 'iPhone Killer'.

To be fair to the Korean chappies, the new handset, the iRiver wave, does look the part, albeit possibly a little chunky.

Shown as a concept idea back at the start of the year at CES 2008, this baby has a 3-inch touchscreen interface with Wi-Fi connectivity, all the music and video playback functionality you could think of and an FM radio too.

Slot machine

If that wasn't enough for you, there's an ebook reader and an electronic dictionary to keep you at peak intellect. It's got a microSD slot too and an interface that lets you access online music for those moments when your own collection is all too boring.

But here's the bad news: it's only available in Korea. But on the plus side it's shipping on 9 March? Well, not really a plus side. We were just trying to distract you from disappointment.